Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History (53 page)

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So the crash in Paris in ‘74 was a test to see if they had the ability to bring the plane down [Note: 3/3/1974 / Turkish / 346 dead.]

Yes.

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And what did they do at that point?

B. had approached. This was in St. Louis, representatives of the company, I believe top echelon. I don’t know the names of the people. It was in the most diplomatic but straight terms. It was put to them that it will cost so much per aircraft to do business. There seemed to be, initially, not a great deal of resistance. It wasn’t pay or lose an aircraft. They had approached them with the idea that we have contacts overseas, and we can arrange for sales, and then again it can be your aircraft or another person’s aircraft. Now what can you offer us? They did pay per aircraft sold for a limited time.

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You say payment per aircraft sold. How were the payments arranged and to whom were they made?

The payments were arranged in cash through a drop in Geneva. The resentment that developed and the balking at payments came at a time when there were congressional investigations developing regarding foreign payments. McDonnell-Douglas felt at this time that everyone was, to use a crude term, coming clean; they wished to cover themselves. They virtually were forced by government pressure in this country to stop. Again, the government thought it was only a matter of payment to sell planes, and they stopped there.

The Organization could care less why it happened. The payments had stopped and they wouldn’t resume. After that, the accidents were in earnest, the arranged accidents. S. had corrected some problems that had developed in the ultrasonics system and could be very reliable in arranging that structural failures or cracks could be arranged at any point. They could have it where a crack could be found, reflecting on the aircraft itself, or in the extreme example of the case of the DC-10 in Chicago, they could raise the ultrasonic to such a level that they knew that the natural vibration of the aircraft would complete the work.

Whether it be the DC-10 out of Paris with the problem regarding the cargo door, whether it was the Air New Zealand DC-10, whether it was the Western Airlines DC-10 that crashed on landing in Mexico City, whether it was the DC-10 that crashed at O’Hara Field in Chicago, the one constant that was used in all cases was ultrasonics, leaving no trace. It would be attributed to structural failure of one type or another.

On board the DC-10 out of Chicago, it was learned at the airport that two couriers, members of the Organization were to be on that flight and were to meet with a member of MI5, British intelligence, in Los Angeles, by the name of T. whose front is as a representative of a London newspaper. When they were noticed immediate action was taken to develop the structural crack to such an extent that at certain sound and vibration levels consistent with take-off of the aircraft vibrations necessary to complete structural failure of the aircraft would take place. The two men on the aircraft, part of the Organization, one K. of Austria and S., who were subsequently killed in the crash.

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The ultrasonic equipment, could you explain what this is, a possible description of the equipment, how it was used?

I have never seen the equipment, but from the conversations that I have developed, the equipment sounds a bit like — it’s compact, it could be in the seat of a pickup truck or service truck, which indeed it was in the Chicago example, and the actual device that delivered these highly directed waves is through an arrangement where you can direct it, point it, like a… they have these ‘guns’ you can direct for sound.

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Now for the Siemans company…

Their main work is more than just fortunate. A principal facility of Siemans, a facility dealing in the ultrasonics is located very close to the O’Hara Airport. The device that I mentioned could be on the seat [of a car or pickup truck]. The power requirements are relatively large for it. The power requirements were drawn from the ground equipment.

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At O’Hara, there are some questions of the time frame. You’d mentioned that this was one of the undertakings that the Organization did that was given belated approval because they moved fast. How long before the flight was this imminent defection discovered?

Less than a day. It was late afternoon, because the information came to me about 11 hours before it happened. Late in the evening, I was in my home when I got a call from a member of the Organization who works for me, and who the Organization is not aware is working for me, and let me know that something was very seriously wrong. It was not a secure line so we had scramblers.

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Who did these orders come from?

My man said merely that they came from West Germany. — The order was given to watch them, and they were watched. They were observed at the airport together, talking. No two Organization should ever talk in the open. It was decided, particularly in light of the information about the call to T. in Los Angeles that something had to be done immediately, and they knew that the Organization — these people obviously knew because of Siemans’ involvement — that no tears would be shed over a DC-10, and very much, regarding the two men on this flight. Since ultimate authority would come from South America, from Paraguay where the organizational headquarters are, and there was not time to get that approval, then it was decided, then the equipment was brought over from Siemans.

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The destruction of McDonnell-Douglas’ planes, the continued extortion
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I presume that payments have resumed since the destruction of the planes has stopped… the same drops in Geneva.

Yes.

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Why has McDonnell-Douglas been silent about this? Couldn’t they have said, “We’re being blackmailed by the Airbus people who’ve threatened to blow our planes out of the sky… and who have.”

The first time they attempted to make the call, they’d be dead before the call was completed. There are people within the corporation who can handle them.

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What did you do after the Paris Airshow?

I took the train that evening back to Madrid, told Otto what had happened, and took the train out again, and during this time — I stayed a couple days at that time — took the train back and forth. I had that thing about not staying in a hotel. After that time I never stayed in a hotel again.

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This is when you went back from Paris?

Yes. He seemed to be very very agitated, and I got the impression that the agitation was almost make-believe. He more or less knew what was taking place, and was merely getting a confirmation that this man S. could be double-dealing. After all, he was known to represent anybody who could pay the price. I had the distinct feeling he wouldn’t have sent me in there on something like that if he didn’t know. He didn’t know me that long. Unless he knew what the answer was going to be, and was merely looking for that confirmation. I passed on the information and he made more sense out of it than I did.

I left, and after that I said, “I’ve had it.” I was so unnerved by what was taking place, that I said that after I got through making [my report]. In fact, this is very unusual — usually things aren’t in writing, but this time I put it in writing, handed it in through the mail drop in Munich, and took the first train out just as far as I could go. The farthest place I could go was Bergen, Norway. Takes three days to get there by train.

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You reported to Otto, which obviously had more meaning to Otto than it did to you, and Otto became agitated
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and you feel he was putting you on?

Yes. You could tell when he was really upset about something, just that boasting, blustering way that Germans have. He’s Austrian, but same thing, Germans and Austrians. He seemed to be upset, but merely as a put-on. He said, “Let’s go downstairs” and — we knew those two cars were there — make a great big show of walking — first and only time he did this, walked out to his car, Mercedes, naturally, parked in the driveway. Big show of “How do you do? Hello, goodby,” you know, shaking hands, all very … Take your pick: could they be Spanish police? Could they be his own people? Could they be Mossad? Could they be American? I have no idea.

We picked up where we’d left off, about how he wanted me to spend a little more investigating, after I’d told him about ComSat. I’d mentioned Dillingham, because I’d looked into it a little bit, it was one of my first. I told him that I found it very disturbing, unbelievable, that the majority of Dillingham’s assets were in the Ala Moana Shopping Center, and considering how old the company is, 1903 or 1906, and how they controlled, or can control traffic in the island, how everything to the outer islands, outside of Oahu is done by barge. I had noticed in a standard financial report that Dillingham had listed that the business in the barge traffic was severely hampered because the barge broke down, or the tug broke down. This is incredible! I’m not talking about a Ma and Pa hamburger stand, we’re talking about a major operation.

They [Dillingham] also got involved in mining ore in Australia, around the Great Barrier Reef, and the Australian government was sticking it to them to such an extent that they had to pull out. It seemed whatever investment they got into was a complete and utter failure, and the only thing that was worth anything was out in Oahu, probably 350-400 million … supposed to be the largest, or second largest shopping center in the world. They were well-placed, also owning Cal Gas, and they were getting into real estate in Colorado and in California. They were trying to diversify but they were really being inept. I was curious how this was possible, how they could be so inept with all these supposedly experienced [people]. I found out that the board of directors was overlaid with people [with whom] they had made deals to purchase or lease land for construction, and they’d made deals, to keep the costs down, share the profits. For example, when they were developing Waikiki, draining the swamps at the time, the land they would purchase or lease was on the basis of, first of all, we’ll make you a director of Dillingham, maybe some Japanese garden farmer or [the owner of] a sushi stand. “You’re a director now.” They had more directors than General Motors, for God’s sake. I told Otto this and how they hadn’t done anything, and he found this interesting. I looked at it and said, what would it take to gain effective controlling interest? Controlling interest of a corporation can be done, not by owning 51% of the shares, but by having substantial enough numbers so they have to listen. That would be a good way to start.

I found out how many shares Merrill Lynch had. First you have to know the number of outstanding shares. This is the way they [the Organization] work, they take their time, they don’t rush. Very very low profile.

The plan was to basically take over the corporation. This would be an ideal thing, given what you’d control. They have North Shipping, which is a big shipping company, deals throughout the entire Pacific Basin — not doing anything. That was half and half between them, Dillingham and a partnership basis with Norwegian interests. The idea was to gain effective controlling interest and then full controlling interest. Not, say the outstanding shares are 11 million, to buy all of them or even a majority, but to do it through front companies and various individuals. On the books it appears to be maybe 500 or a thousand different people, but in fact the one entity does the directing.

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Is there anything illegal about that?

Yes, there is. You must report to the SEC when you own over 5% of a corporation.

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So it’s very difficult to prosecute, since you do have all these individuals saying, “I own this.”

Sure, and I’ve owned it for a number of years, and I receive the checks, and it goes to their accounts, pay taxes on it. But it’s all paid back to the Organization. The Organization gives the word.

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When you have 500 to 1000 people, who between them may own 20%, which is a pretty loud voice in the company, but ostensibly they are individual owners; how can they act in concert? What can they do to impress the company that there is one block talking without compromising their position?

The Dillinghams are more or less the people who are running things for Dillingham. It’s done privately: this is the score, and if you want to test it, fine, we’ll test it, and show you exactly how much muscle there is.

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They’re threatening to dump stock, that’s the lever?

Right, and then we’ll buy it all and build it up to our own standards. We’d prefer not doing it that way, but…

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Let’s talk about the Organization and Dillingham. You show them, through Otto, a corporation in trouble, without direction, but which is potentially a very strong corporation. And the plan is that you, the Organization, could buy a controlling interest through 500 or a thousand people. What happened as a result of that?

They went ahead. As I found out later, the Organization has a number of individuals, American, German, French, British, that they control. These people could tell key personnel that because of their tax situations, they can’t afford it, but they want the others to buy some stock and be the nominal owner of it, and this is how they eventually did it. I reported, through the years, on where the major blocks of shares are. They had a relatively small block for trading purposes. Merrill Lynch had something like 300,000 shares on hand that could be obtained at a special price, off the market. It wouldn’t be shown as a normal trade, just be transferred from one trader to another, and held in a street name, usually by a bank. The front would be a trust.